I would normally throw in a picture or two but I looked and just could not find a descent photo of manufacturing in this area. SO here it goes!

While I’m quite sure that I’m preaching to the choir and most of us have had these questions pop up at least in our own minds……WHERE ARE THE REAL JOBS? I know that is a really big all-encompassing question and everyone knows their job is real including myself but what is it that we are working to support?

I travel quite a bit throughout this state and I see farming, building of homes, plenty of churches and banks on every corner and of course the never-ending road construction but not much if anything in the line of making something.

I see all sorts of service oriented businesses like restaurants of EVERY flavor, hotels, a plethora of department stores, doctors, lawyers and of course all the tech stuff anyone could ever hope for but almost no manufacturing. WHAT DO PEOPLE MAKE IN THIS COUNTRY ANYMORE? If we do make anything here it for damn sure isn’t being made here.

What happened to it? I know that most of what is here in the south is farming of all sorts and we grow quite a bit of what the country uses for staples and clothing so maybe that’s what it is but there can’t be that much around here to warrant having 3 super Wal-Mart within 10 to 15 miles of one another.

Is your town like this? I would really like to know. Hell we even have a theater here with 14 screens, a really nice “theatre” and even a few museums. WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM?

There are plenty of poor around here and it gets to me sometime. If there were any way to get more manufacturing into this area the people who would like to have better jobs might just have some opportunity.

I’m ok with whatever job people need to make a living at (legally) and have NEVER put down another “mans” job but I think things would liven up around here for everyone if this country would just get back to making something other than new debt!

If you are wondering the same thing about your town and surrounding areas please let me know. How much manufacturing has left your area? How many people in your area are working for less than they were making just a few years ago? Tell about people who have to work more than one or two jobs just to pay the mortgage or rent.

My dad and I were talking about this the other day. He has been in manufacturing all his life and basically I too. We make Patriotic Plaques and Military Plaques here in NC and we try so so so hard to get everything we make sourced from the US. We are having such a hard time getting even screws made here in American. Quite honestly it has gotten to the point where we are looking at having a friend of ours machine out screws so we can say everything we use is made in America. Yeah, it might cost a little more, but I’ll take pride in the fact that I’m helping a fellow American.

My dad used to run a screw machine (a machine that makes screws) when he was 14 in a garage behind his house to help out the shop his father worked at. It has honestly come to a point where we can’t even buy simple hardware in this country that 40-50 years ago was made on someone’s back yard!!!

AS for manufacturing, we have hardly any left in our town. I live in what’s called the furniture capitol of the world, High Point, NC. Almost every single furniture and mill has been moved over seas. A friend of mine has moved building recently and he told me that there were 396 empty buildings here in the city limits. That means MILLIONS of square feet of manufacturing space is gone!!! Sorry, but if the 600-800% profit you were making because you paid AMERICANS minimum wage to work was not good enough for you so you had to move you manufacturing over seas then there is a warm spot in hell waiting for you. (I’m in no way against profit, I’m against firing hard working people because your fat ass is greedy!!!!)

I’m a little pissed about this myself because I have no clue what the people in this area are doing for a job. The sad part is, the city is doing everything it can to discourage manufacturing from coming back to the city. Sorry for the double post, I got even madder after I reread the article and thought about it a little more.

Thanks for stopping by. It has gotten pretty sad. I mean why wouldn’t they move overseas when they get tax breaks from the IRS for doing it. Just another way to screw us( pun intended).
Thanks for all your hard work and trying to manutacture with all American harware.
I was stationed in Cherry Point while in the Corps and remember NC being the furniture capitol.
Please feel free to rant all you want….there are still some of us that listen and wish we had some answers.
Semper Fi